Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden - Photo Credit: Ducati
The Ducati team continued their efforts to improve the pace of the GP12 machine in the post-race Catalunya test yesterday. Valentino Rossi used the aluminium swingarm once again after testing it for the first time at Mugello last week and feels the Monday session gave them more useful information that will benefit them moving forward.
“We didn't have much new stuff, so we concentrated on testing settings, trying many different configurations. In the end we understood that the setup we settled on for yesterday's race was really the best one for this track. We tried the aluminium swingarm, which could help us in terms of grip on acceleration, but it triggers too much chatter, as opposed to during the Mugello test, where it proved to be advantageous. It will be interesting to try it again at Aragon on Wednesday.”
Rossi was eleventh fastest, one place behind teammate Nicky Hayden. The American was frustrated to lose track time after a late stoppage and is keen to get back to work tomorrow at Aragon.
“It was definitely nice to get in a good day of testing, even if it was mainly just confirming things like fork settings, geometry and a couple of electronic settings. It's a shame we got a red flag at the end of the day because we had one new tyre ready so that we could go out one last time and check to see if we had made any real progress, but that's how it goes. Nonetheless, it was definitely a useful day. Now we'll move on to Aragon and give it a go there.”
